I woke up this morning to headlines of Japan’s victory in the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Congrats, Nadeshiko Japan!

There are other headlines too. It seems that the ugly online behavior of American fans was newsworthy:

As USA and Japan battle it out on the field to be the considered best women’s soccer team in the world, Americans have taken to twitter to air some racist thoughts. The game has created numerous trending topics on Twitter including names of American players as well as “Japs” and “Pearl Harbor.”

Pearl Harbor is when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, killing thousands and spurring the American’s entry into World War 2. It is considered one of the saddest days in American history. Japs is a racist term Americans and other allies used against the Japanese in WW2.

In my previous post about pre-match ugliness on Facebook, I thought I was highlighting only a few American soccer fans. It was only a few dozen Facebook updates. Unfortunately, it seems I may have been highlighting only the tiny tip of a gigantic iceberg. If “Japs” and “Pearl Harbor” were on in the top trending terms on Twitter, it means that thousands and thousands of users would have needed to use them in tweets.

A quick search on OpenBook.org revealed that Facebook had also been hit by huge numbers of hateful status updates:

The number of hateful facebook status updates visible on Openbook is pretty huge – far more than what I found the other day.

As I write this post, it’s been over 4 hours since the end of the match. I checked Twitter, and the terms were still trending!

Fortunately, most of the tweets right now seem to be from people commenting on how embarrassing it is to see both terms on the trending list. We can also see that “Congrats Japan” has a higher place on the list.

Mostly the players’ names, both Japanese and American (the latter being in katakana).

http://twitter.com/TKYC Elephant in the room

Appalling, yet the Japan Women’s team not only won the Cup, but also the ‘Fair Play’ award… meaning they committed the least fouls, did not dive, cheat, back-chat the refs or anything unsavoury… best behaved team of the comp.

Pity the same cant be said for tweeters and facebookers!

Jeffrey

Fucking embarrassing. I am so happy for Japan. It may only be sport, but they needed something like this.

http://twitter.com/FancyPantsJew Fancy Pants McGee

That’s pretty fucking disgusting to say the least.

UltraManCosmo

Whilst true there are war connotations and the intended tone of the messages is frighteningly dark, why is “jap” considered so bad? Being Australian we get called aussie all the time but other countries, so I see the abbreviation from Japanese to Jap as nothing more than shortening. Do the war connotations still exist that much?
Just curious.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

why is “jap” considered so bad?

Americans consider it an offensive slur, on par with “chinks” / “gooks” etc.

I always find that foreigners find the word “jap” more offensive than Japanese people.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Japanese people in Japan don’t find it offensive because they don’t speak English.

The 1 million+ US citizens of Japanese ethnicity, however, are a different story. Their parents and grandparents remember the vicious racism directed towards “Japs” and the United States government’s policy of putting “Japs” into concentration camps.

That legacy of racism in the United States has made “Jap” an offensive slur in American English. As Britling wrote, it’s all about the cultural context.

If all the people leaving tweets and posting Facebook statuses were Australian, it might be easier to write off as just a matter of shortening a word and not realizing that it was a slur. But these people are American and they made it a trending topic in America.

http://www.facebook.com/rallegretti Rob Allegretti

Just because the old warmongering coots said it with a negative meaning doesn’t mean we still think of it that way.

As an American, I don’t use the phrase often, but I certainly don’t think of it as offensive or racist. In a hashtag it’s shorter than “#JapaneseFemaleWorldCupFinals”…would you rather we call them “Nips”…short for Nipponese? That somehow sounds even more offensive to me.

Once again, people who don’t know getting hyped up on behalf of another people that don’t want it themselves.

Bonus

Well, it is still very offensive to Japanese Americans, of which I am one. The world cup defeat by the US still proves that some Americans use the word for the sole purpose of being offensive. Hence, try not to use it.

Hamachiman

It doesn’t matter whether YOU find it offensive or not. By that definition, there are surely some people that find the “N” word inoffensive. So does that mean it’s right to use it?

What matters is OTHER people find it offensive. Is that not a good enough reason not to openly use a term that has racist connotations and history attached to it?

Anonymous

Language doesn’t work according to rules that relate how long or short a word is to how offensive it is in actual usage. It depends on the cultural context. ‘Brit’ and ‘Aussie’ are not offensive; ‘Jap’ and ‘Paki’ are. But you only know this if you’re aware of the culture; I have encountered a few Japanese people who have referred to themselves as ‘Jap’ and have had to warn them that the type of people who use this word in English-speaking circles are generally not the types they would probably want to spend time with. But language also changes, so it is possible that in the future the word could be claimed by the Japanese and used non-offensively. Alternatively, it may just wither on the vine.

Ben

“Japs” has a derogatory connotation. It was used as a war-time label to make the Japanese seem as subhuman and inferior. therefore, it also helped justify the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans because they were alleged “Jap” spies. “kraut” wasn’t very popular when addressing nazi germany because so many americans are of german ancestry. brits and aussies are cute labels to address our fellow anglo-speaking friends, but i’m not going to call my irish friend a mick or my italian friend a wop.

Comment

UltraManCosmo, “jap” is way on the low end of being a racial insult. It was invented during WWII as an insult to our then enemy. Over the years since the war, its impact has lessened to the point that many people don’t even know it IS a racial insult. As evidence, look through the comments using the link James provided, some people are saying things like “Congrats Japs”. They are likely using it in the same context you suggested i.e. “brits”, “aussies”, et. al. and have no idea of its history.

Tempest in a teacup.

Comment

After re-reading my post, I realize that what I said may be read as meaning that ALL the people using that term might not understand the history behind it. For the sake of clarity, many of those people using the term “japs” are clearly using it in an insulting fashion. I was just pointing out that it would appear that not all of them do.

Foobar

I don’t think they should get any attention… if it was not japan it would be obama or something else.
Some people simply have no life. They don’t have power over their lives, so they bully others in order to think they are powerful.

[ sorry for the english, brazillian here. Congrats japan, btw. ]

PS: does ‘japs’ is only used in a offensive way? ‘cuz here in brazil is not said in a offensive manner…

http://omipan.tumblr.com/ gavinovz

Just like in any culture there are a bunch of idiots. I pay them no mind.

TJ

I bet if you look at all the comments, you will find a trend…..most are effing kids. It makes me sick that I spent 15 years of my life in the Navy to defend the freedom of speech for these type of people.

Anonymous

While disgusting, freedom of speech isn’t just for those with whom you agree.

YH

Mentioning the freedom of speech to insult other people or make hate speeches against ethnic groups is an abuse of that freedom.

Anonymous

I guess you just don’t understand the concept of freedom of speech. Do some reading.

Jacob

And you wonder why people around the world hate America.

hate drama queens

this is complete bullshit you’re clearly over exaggerating. i bet all the people saying this things are such a small minority there not even worth mentioning.

Spoon328

The terms would not be trending if it were a small minotiry.

http://twitter.com/ThyGoddess Michelle

I’m sure a lot of them were telling others they were retards for saying such things. That counts as an addition.

Anonymous

Yes if you read the article linked in the second paragraph of this topic it says that after people became aware of the racist comments other people responded regarding how stupid these comments were. Thus increasing the “trending” data.

Just by skimming the trending for “japs” it looks like hundreds of positive posts to each negative post. I have to say in general I despise twitter but in this case it’s nice to see people reacting that way. I guess I’ll wait and see what Kanye West has to say before I make a final judgment.

http://profiles.google.com/shadowpal2 Déjà D’être

Seriously, what disgusting behavior. How can there still be comments like this in the 21st century? …We can do much much better. Anyway, we should in no way pay no attention to them. Just leave them in their dead mindset.

But wow seriously, congrats Japan! What a game that was! Good fun!

Anonymous

It’s interesting that it seems like the vast majority of these come from what look like 16-24 year olds. I’m sure that says something about the youth of today. I am not sure what but it says something. I know if I had my own public soap box at that age I would have said embarrassing things. Probably not things that some consider racist but still not things I would consider saying today.

I also noticed that many of them were not even Americans, which I guess is ok. At least the racism is not confined to the team actually involved in the match. Some people don’t need a stake in something to enjoy racism.

It would be great if there were no hate or racism in the world at all, but I know that will never happen. Looking at the positive versus negative messages though I’m actually ok with it. As it stands there are far more positive comments than racist ones. Let them say what they want, it really does not effect me at all. In fact I love that they are now and forever on public record with their opinions. Makes it much easier when deciding who to hire for a job for example.

To other Americans I would just say, don’t deny racism exists. Racism exists everywhere in the world and America is the most diverse country in the world. I would actually be shocked if there were not a lot of racism in the US. I really don’t want to see the typical Japanprobe responses of “but this country is racist too, look at this example”. The topic here is idiots in the US using twitter, and I’m totally willing to admit most twitter users are idiots.

Hamachiman

What is particularly egregious about these sorts of racist hate mongering by these idiots is that Japan has been one of America’s most steadfast and loyal allies these past few decades.

While the citizens of some nations actually danced with joy when the airline jets hit the Twin Towers on 9/11, The prime minister of Japan was quick to offer his condolences, and Japanese citizens donated millions to the citizens of New York. Japan was a key ally in the unpopular ‘war on terror,’ even when it extended to Iraq, being one of the nations that offered money and logistics support to Iraq/Afghanistan.

When the Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, many Japanese citizens were moved to offer their support and assistance. One businessman even offered one million as he was very moved by the plight of the suffering victims: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439×642182

The most despicable irony is that these ‘pearl harbor jap’ idiots are the first ones to broadly generalize all Japanese as being ignorant, racist, and ‘whitewashing’ their past for something that happened over 60 years ago, yet they have no compunctions about whitewashing what a great ally Japan has been to America. Pure hypocrisy.

Truly, with “friends,” like these, who needs enemies?

Comment

“Truly, with “friends,” like these, who needs enemies?”

Hamachiman, I’ve seen you post this phrase on several other occasions. The context in which you use it leads the reader to believe that you are condemning all Americans for the actions of a very small minority. Or even worse, that all Americans are your enemy.

Of course there are some Americans who don’t like Japan, just as there are some Japanese that don’t like Americans. As long as they stay a small minority in each country, it’s not really something worth getting worked up about because there always will be someone who is ignorant or hateful.

The minority in question say very offensive things, but are they really your enemy? Do you genuinely believe they cannot learn?

Hamachiman

I’m not condemning all Americans, heck, I’m an American myself. I don’t see why these hateful things shouldn’t be called out and properly dealt with instead of hiding/minimizing it and making excuses for it, which you routinely do here on Japan Probe. And deride those who do as “Japan apologizers.”

Comment

I agree that hateful things should be called out. I don’t agree that these type of things should be sensationalized in a tabloid manner like JP often does. But just exactly how does what you do help “properly deal with it”? When you say things like “the world media is against Japan”, and “I predict the Japan haters blah blah…” How on Earth could these type of comments in any way help teach these people? Hate just breeds more hate. If anything, what you do may create more “Japan haters”.

Anonymous

I’m not sure why you bring up 911/Katrina. After Japan just going through a horrible disaster I’m sure you must remember that there are Americans offering support and assistance.

You in turn seem to be generalizing Americans by the actions of a handful of mostly ignorant teenagers. With friends like these? Are you really friends with those people? The fact is America is probably Japans closest ally in the world but you want to judge millions of people based on these few? Hypocrisy indeed.

Don’t worry though, other than guys in black vans and a few crazy people I have found the Japanese to be very friendly welcoming people. I won’t judge the rest of the country by the negative things you have to say. After living here for many many years it is indeed rare that I encounter people with a disdain for the rest of the world that you seem to have.

I’m not saying that you should ignore the terrible things in the world, but why not look at the positive things as well. A few idiots made racists comments on a website, but ten times as many responded by calling them idiots. Certainly seems like the positive outweighs the negative in this case.

Hamachiman

Told. You. So.

Is there anything more predictable than the sheer amount of racist pure hatred and ignorance spewed against anything remotely Japanese on the internet? I saw this coming from a mile away. The minute I read that the U.S. would compete against Japan, I knew it was only a matter of seconds before the ‘pearl harbor karma japs’ crowd would once again flood facebook, twitter, and every other ‘social network’ out there.

You’d think that it would be enough for these hypocrites to have said their piece during and after the earthquakes and tsunami. But noooo, it’s never enough when it comes to Japan. There would absolutely be none of this kind of garbage, on this level, were it some other nation but Japan.

baseface

“Is there anything more predictable than….”

I can think of one thing…

Anonymous

Me too!

Anonymous

I get it.

Ponta

me too…… probably in a different sense.

Comment

Hamachiman, it was James who dug up the dirt for you. Without him doing all the work, your ‘prediction’ would have fallen flat on its face like almost all your other ones do.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XOPGY2MDC7AC47OPFIGVVFWWKQ BigD

BUNCH OF IDIOTS! BOTH TEAMS PLAYED HARD, JAPAN WON! USA ARE ALSO A GREAT TEAM! WHY THESE IDIOTS HAVE TO BE A DICK AND BRING IN IRRELEVANT SUBJECTS!

I’m glad Japan Won! but even a victory can’t shut them up! they’ll always complain about one thing or another. Arrogant jerks.
Good thing I don’t associate myself with them. An embarrassment to All Americans, including myself.

T_d_brown_5

being an aussie and my wife japanese and my 2 boys being half, im soooo fu%^kn sick of every small minded c*&ksucker that has to be so negative on a certain race! my wife had to endure being spat on by older men on ANZAC day, our nations biggest day from ww1, why does the shit from 90yrs ago still being held today??? GET OVER IT YOUR MORONS!

Robert Miyazaki

Never mind ^^ – these are all poor, poor people :D. Drop down your pants with YKK zippers, sell your PlayStation and never even dare to take a look on a Nintendo 3DS xoxoxxoo

a.

I’m sure there’s much more significant technology that they’d need to drop! But in the same way my father is racist towards Americans and sometimes I think about destroying his DVD collection… you know, to help him out…

DaNang

the “international business times” article must have been written by a 7 year old: “pearl harbor is when..” wtf? no mention of course that “pearl harbor” was an attack on navy and army facilities. soon ppl will confuse “pearl harbor” with 9/11.

craig

the pearl harbour and ww2 stuff is pretty bad but I don’t think its fair to count all the Jap mentions as horrible, horrible racism. To some people its just an abbreviation and they don’t realise others regard it as a slur.

http://thehopefulmonster.wordpress.com/ Sublight

And as with the derogatory comments coming in after the earthquake, none of these dopes look old enough to have even had parents serving in the war, let alone been in it themselves.

Not that the same comments coming from a WWII vet would be ok, but at least then I could see that the ill will was coming from somewhere other than an idiotic plea for attention.

AKDH

Oops! I got so upset that I accidentally looked these people up on Facebook and contacted their parents, schools, and employers and reposted what they wrote.

JS

Ignorant people are ignorant.

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

It’s funny to see fat American land cows and white trash actually losing their cool over women’s soccer of all things.

http://www.facebook.com/rallegretti Rob Allegretti

I don’t really see how saying “Japs” is racist, but saying “Yanks”, “Brits”, “Aussies”, “Jews” or “Gaijin” isn’t…

It’s just shorter. It’s not meant in an insulting or offensive way. Especially when you’re talking about a hashtag which has to be relatively short and easy to throw into a really short message.

Shigematsu

It has a lot more historical baggage than those. While Japanese natives might not find it as offensive, Japanese-Canadian/Americans do.

“Japs” has got the same connotation as “gooks” and “chinks” for us.

Hiroshima

You don’t see ”Japs” is racist, but ”Gaijin” ?
I think you know ”Gaijin” is shortened from Gaikokujin that means foreigner.
Why don’t you see ”Gaijin” is just shorter??

qwerty

@Rob AllegrettiIt’s like N-word for Japanese like me. So stfu already, gaijin san. No argument here.

I had a look at the Twitter trending topics as it was happening, and I have to say most of the comments came from (mostly American) people asking things like: “why I is ‘Japs’ trending. How friking disgraceful”. Also, as a non-American I often wonder where these racist people come from. The Bible Belt? A sewer that overflows in moments like this? Because I’ve never met a racist American.

FukaiMori

99.9% of the people posting the Pearl Harbor comments, don’t even know what day it took place on, what actually happened, and the fact that that type of Japanese government doesn’t even exist anymore. It’s done. Gone. Japan was among one of the first countries to help during Katrina, nevertheless. These same Twitter people spewed the same old bullshit when the Tsunami hit Japan. It makes me sick to be apart of this country [America] most of the time.

I LOVE YOU JAPAN!!

Aceface

What amazed me the most is the fact that there are so many dudes on the both side of pacific who consider themselves as women’s soccer enthusiast..

qwerty

I was hooked in the year of Athens’ Olympic. Ever since I am a supporter of our women’s national soccer team. Those Nadeshiko girls have bigger passion for Beautiful Game than our male counter parts do.

http://www.monster-island.net/ kushibo

I think Corey Ballard’s status (third from top) may have been tongue-in-cheek, so it shouldn’t count. And I myself made silly jokes about nukes and soccer, but not like that. Nevertheless, Twitter can’t determine sarcasm, irony, or intent, so I wonder how useful “trending topics” is. Like “I’m extremely terrified of Chinese people,” maybe it becomes a self-perpetuating trend (I’m sure someone has already mentioned that).

Ultimately, are these people representative of Americans? Not in California, they don’t seem to be.

Yetser

Thanks for not censoring the names. I’ve already flamed quite a few of them.

Yetser

So quite a few have gotten back to me. Everyone else flame them too. The “conversations” one can have with them are hilariously bad! They really are as dumb as they look.

this is why im thankful for moving out of the U.S,ive encountered some racism in my time specially in school with words like beaner,spic,wetback,not all americans are like that but there is a number of them that are.i love japan i love their culture,food,tv,books,specially the women ;D,and even though im not japanese i cheered for them and even yelled WOOO JAPAN WON!!.but these low lives use racism and events that arent even related.

Ken Aston

Just because some guys twittered this it isn’t worth the attention. Naturally you find any kind of comment on the Internet if you look long enough.

Doug

The US has 300,000,000 people in it. A few idiots does not mean those feels are widespread. Soccer is not a big deal at all in the US. No one in the US is talking about the Women’s World Cup. It is already forgotten.

cinova

Admitedly, not all Americans are racist, but I’m not sure how you calculate “a few”. One of the reasons that racism prevails is because people deny the existence of it or minimize the seriousness of it. Your point about no one in the USA talking about the World Cup anymore just reinforces the problem…people think they can express these hateful sentiments, then wake up the next day and get on with their lives as if nothing has happened. Better to face the fact that these racist elements exist within our communities and start challenging them!

Anonymous

They truly are the garbage amongst humans. This is only a little event compared to the 8.9 earthquake which sparked about as much hatred along twitter and facebook users… I am really disappointed..

Cherrygum4500

I’m glad you guys didn’t censor the names, so now employers, and whoever else can see what racist scum lurk in their midst

http://www.facebook.com/tristan.calmrist Tristan Azriel Calmrist

is not like the word that people who stay in pear harbor say is wrong. however i cannot accept how you people still hold the grudge after so many years. i thought our school has history class is to teach us children of the next generation to not repeat the mistake in the past. so how come so many people who don’t have mind saying those nonsense. i wont be surprise if one day your grudge became the spark of a new storm to this world. when that happen, i wonder if you can look into your future children eye that were born into a world where there is no peace thanks to all of those grudge holder.

http://www.facebook.com/tristan.calmrist Tristan Azriel Calmrist

soo many life were lost in the history. all of those brave soul who sacrifice their life to keep this world in peace. thanks to those hero, that most of you here were able to be born into a peaceful world where you dont have to feel the horror of war. Yet, people like you who hold grudge over a history mistake still continue to blame other, to me you people are looking down on those people who gave their life away to protect the peace you all are enjoying now. YOU ALL HAS DISHONOR THOSE BRAVE SOLDIER BLOOD THAT SPILL FOR THIS PEACE!